BOMBING BUSTS FOLLOW BOTCHED MINK FARM RAID

July 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

VANCOUVER, B.C., SALT
LAKE CITY, Utah––A turning point in
the evolution of animal rights-related direct
action may have come when within days of
the airing of graphic media coverage of the
May 31 botched release of up to 9,600 mink
from a fur farm at Mount Angel, Oregon,
authorities in Vancouver and Salt Lake City
identified suspects in two apparently unrelated
strings of purportedly animal rightsrelated
violence.
Released were as many as 1,600
adult females and 6,000-8,000 kits. An estimated
400 adults and 2,000 kits either died
of exposure, killed each other in fierce territorial
fighting, were apparently trampled
underfoot by the raiders, or were missing
with little chance of survival in habitat
unlikely to sustain their metabolic needs.

PETA, Procter & Gamble, and the Rokke Horror Picture Show

July 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

CINCINNATI––A Procter & Gamble probe of
alleged animal abuse at Huntingdon Life Sciences in East
Millstone, New Jersey, supports charges leveled on June 4 by
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
P&G that day suspended testing work contracted out
to Huntingdon, after three P&G public relations staffers
attended a PETA press conference featuring a nine-minute
covert video made by PETA undercover investigator Michelle
Rokke, a three-year staffer who obtained employment with
Huntingdon as a laboratory animal care technician.
PETA the same day introduced the Rokke video as
evidence in support of a 37-page complaint to the USDA accusing
Huntingdon of multiple Animal Welfare Act violations.
“We’re citing inadequate veterinary care, improper
training, and violation of AWA caging requirements,” said
PETA director of investigations Mary Beth Sweetland.
Reported Jeff Harrington of the Cincinnati Enquirer,
“PETA’s video shows technicians dangling monkeys, yelling
at them, throwing some of them into cages and threading tubes
down their noses. At one point a monkey displays movement
and a quickened heartbeat when a technician cuts into his chest.

ANIMAL CONTROL & RESCUE

July 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

Alley Cat Allies invites cat rescuers
to participate in the sixth of an annual
series of surveys of techniques and observations
similar to those ANIMAL PEOPLE
did in 1992 and 1995. For a survey form,
send SASE to POB 397, Mt. Rainier, MD
20712, or call 301-229-7890.
Among the encouraging data
reported in a new National Pet Alliance
paper, Do free spay/neuter vouchers work,
“Newborn kittens entering the H u m a n e
Society of the Santa Clara Valley shelter
have decreased 44%” since a voucher program
began there in 1994, “while kittens in
general have decreased 10%. The total
number of cats handled has dropped slightly,
even though the service area has been
increasing and the human population has
been increasing,” author Karen Johnson
wrote. Among the other evident results of a
lower feline birth rate, the number of cats
surrendered at the shelter because the owners
claimed to have too many cats dropped
from 51% to 35% over the same interval.
The paper is available c/o NPA, POB
53385, San Jose, CA 95153.

PET STORES

July 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

Responding to criticism of the Vetsmart neutering brochure distributed at
in-house clinics in the PetsMart stores, which seems to promote rather than discourage
breeding, PetsMart Charities director Lynn Stullberg DVM, has pledged to “work
together with individuals in the animal welfare community to revise the brochure” and
encourage Vetsmart to accept the revisions. “Vetsmart is always willing to support the
mission of PetsMart Charities,” Stullberg added. “For example, they are supplying at
cost the vaccinations for an animal control facility in San Diego so they may participate
in PetsMart’s Luv-A-Pet Adoption Program. Another example is a program which
Vetsmart has founded in association with the University of Minnesota College of
Veterinary Medicine, in which veterinary students take a course in animal welfare,
work at a local humane society, and neuter dogs and cats for the society at no charge to
the organization. This program will start this month.”

Roger Rabbit and the facts of life

July 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

NEW YORK––Seriously asserting in
his 1996 book A Perfect Harmony that rabbits are
capable of immaculate conception, American
SPCA president Roger Caras reached for another
miracle of harmony as regards pet reproduction in
the summer edition ofASPCA Animal Watch.
At issue: the clash between advocates
of traditional “full service” shelters, which do
dog and cat population control killing, and converts
to the separation of animal control from
other humane services, as in San Francisco.
Inspired by the success of San Francisco
in becoming the first “no-kill” city in 1994, Caras
himself in 1995 led the ASPCA in breaking from
a century-long tradition of serving as the New
York City animal control agency.

Just show me the money!

July 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

National Alliance for Animals
president Peter Gerard, formerly known
as Peter Linck, on May 29 released long
awaited audited financial statements pertaining
to the June 1996 World Animal
Awareness Week––but they scarcely
answered all the big questions, including
why the cost of the events ran triple
Gerard’s estimate of only two months
earlier, while the crowd of 3,000 was
97,000 fewer than his promotional literature
promised.
Gerard told the April 1996
Summit for the Animals that he expected
World Week to cost $218,000 plus
unspecified amounts for advertising that
he later declared to be $13,320. The
World Week program thanked sponsors
for cash gifts of at least $754,925, and
according to Gerard’s crowd count, ticket
sales for World Week events should
have raised $213,600, for estimated total
receipts of upward of $950,000.

Activists & Organizations

More trouble in Montreal

July 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

MONTREAL– – Canadian
SPCA executive director Pierre Barnotti
admitted at the organization’s June 15
annual meeting that he augmented his
$49,000 annual salary in 1995 and 1996
by taking cuts from his fundraising campaigns
of $14,000 and $25,000.
Reported Lisa Fetterman of the
Montreal Gazette, “The former real
estate broker, who has declared bankruptcy,
acknowledged that he takes 10%
of the net profit from any fundraising
that costs the CSPCA some money to
mount, and 15% of the net profit if it
does not cost the organization anything.”
Under Barnotti, CSPCA revenue
rose from $1.7 million in 1995 to
$3.2 million last year. At peak in the
late 1980s and early 1990s, the CSPCA
raised $4 million a year, but incurred
debts exceeding $1 million by subsidizing
the animal control contract, 1991-
1993. It finally lost the contract anyway
in 1994 to a private firm, Berger Blanc.

WILD TIME FOR THE WAYSTATION

July 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST,
Calif.––The California Fish and Game Commission
on June 12 reportedly put off until August a decision
on a Department of Fish and Game request that
it should impose a moratorium on the acceptance of
animals by the Wildlife Waystation sanctuary until
it meets DFG requirements.
DFG director Jacqueline E. Schafer told
the commission on May 16 that the DFG has
refused to renew the Wildlife Waystation permits to
exhibit and keep “detrimental species,” which
expired on February 15, because “the Waystation
continues to possess unpermitted animals, allows
breeding, and houses animals in substandard cages.
Twenty-six unauthorized wild animal births have
taken place at the Waystation since June 1994,”
Schafer charged. She further stated that 23 cages,
mostly housing big cats or bears, have been officially
out of compliance with state regulation since
May 16, 1995.

CAMPAIGNS, ORGANIZATIONS, LEADERS

July 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

Animal control
Dave Flagler, 44, director of animal control in
Fairfax, Virginia for just one year, quit in June to head animal
services in Salt Lake County, Utah. Flagler said he was frustrated
by tight resources in Fairfax0.3, and concerned about a
possible move toward privatization. Previously director of animal
control in Multnomah County, Oregon, Flagler in Fairfax
replaced Daniel P. Boyle, DVM, longtime animal control
chief in DuPage County, Illinois, who after moving to Fairfax
was fired for alleged maladministration just four months later.
Attacked by hunters and trappers in Illinois for pursuing a local
leghold trap ban, Boyle ran afoul of animal rights activists in
Fairfax for using a once standard animal disposition test, now
considered obsolete, in which a dog and a cat are held face to
face. Animals who respond aggressively are killed. Flagler, in
Oregon, was targeted by activists for introducing a tough antivicious
dog law. He drew flak in Fairfax when the county
Board of Supervisors asked him to reduce deer numbers.
Flagler favored hiring a sharpshooter, but the Fairfax Animal
Shelter Advisory Commisson convinced the board to say no.

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